I’m an early riser.
Love the stillness of pre-dawn. Somehow it’s serene and special to me, like a secret moment to explore before anyone else. It’s also usually incredibly cold before sunrise, colder than at any other time of the night. Darkness is complete, with moonlight faded to black and only twinkling starlight distant in the heavens.
It’s ALWAYS “darkest before the dawn” – so cliché’, but true.
Taking our cue from the testament of nature’s cycle, we can apply this truth to our spiritual lives. Seasons of our life can be dark, full of turmoil and testing. We might ‘feel’ lost, unable to sense or see the path forward, groping in the darkness of uncertainty and fear.
Sometimes our loving Father will allow us to struggle through the ‘night’, watching as we grow and mature in our faith. Knowing what’s truly best for us, He loves us enough to give us the space to wrestle with our beliefs. To determine on our own what we’re going to place our faith in.
As a parent, we can do the right things faithfully and feel like nothing is changing in our kid’s. The pattern seems fixed and nothing we’re doing is ‘right. It’s so frustrating and discouraging. It’s in those moments we are most tempted to given in to doubt and discouragement. Don’t!
Dawn is almost upon us. Light is breaking in the eastern skyline of your life!
God is not absent, He is not unaware of your need. God is moving even now to answer your deepest heart-cry and to finish the good work He started. No matter what you ‘feel’ or ‘sense’, never – ever – let go of your hope in God to make ALL THINGS NEW!
Hang tight, dear-heart! God is near… light is about to burst in the darkness and release you from the fear! It’s when we trust what we can’t see that faith grows… it’s when we do what we know is ‘right’ and true, despite the lack of results in our life… that we become like Christ.
Sometimes we just need a word of encouragement to stay the course one – more – day…
Key Passage: Galatians 6:7-9 (ESV)
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
